Now that all of the patches are done and Dawntrail is on the horizon, we felt it was time to take a long look back at Endwalker as a whole - the good, the bad, the progress, the mistakes - and where it sits at the end of this 10 year journey which started in A Realm Reborn. As we look ahead, will Square Enix embrace change, or play it safe? P.S. Yes that footstep scene was as much of a pain in the butt as you think it is.
Great video! 6.0 was great in my opinion. It had it's flaws and I didn't really like the ending. Personlly I think they wasted Zenos' potential. They could have done so much more with him after the final battle. I was really disappointed, but apart from that a really solid story. The post patches however... yeah... not a fan. 😅
Nope. YoshiP was only the director of 14. He was only the producer of 16 BECAUSE he couldn’t take the same responsibilities. BU3 could’ve shared resources, but also don’t know if they hired or expanded their respective efforts - it’s only speculation and not public. It is also highly possible that developing for 14 is relatively less difficult than back in 2.0. The only fairness I would say is EW lacked any INNOVATION - though party follow and dialogue sections was new (but irrelevant here). The content cycle has been the same since 2.0, with a few sprinkles. We got a deep dungeon and criterion’s in lieu of Bozja-like content, it’s not hard to understand. The game is getting a facelift, it would be nice to see more innovative mechanics and quests, but I don’t the content pattern will change much. The relic grind complaint is boring and lacks effort as feedback. Is it immersive right now? No. But relics were always artificial FOMO, and always nerfed at the end of the expansion to the point that makes the grind a waste of time. No one like Fate grinds and suddenly we miss them? Aetheric light (dungeon/raid spam) is the same as tomes, change my mind. The real complaint is that instead creating a new log or relic “lore” they expanded and deepened the Manderville quests. People just need to call it what it is. FFS.
@@reyk1665I personally disagree. The fact they brought back Zenos after the end before was a little questionable gamble to say they least, but they did deliver. I think it was a fine send off
A fair and balanced take on the expansion. It was wonderful seeing you get to enjoy your time with Endwalker, and I'm looking forward to enjoying your Dawntrail coverage too!
I stopped playing after the 6.0 MSQ. I first started back in Heavensward and played pretty much nonstop for the best part of 6 years. Endwalker wrapped up the story so well that it just felt like a natural stopping point for me, a great place to hang up my bard bow and retire from saving the world. It was really fulfilling to walk away from a live service MMO with nothing but fond memories, not feeling burned out, not feeling like the game overstayed its welcome. Now I'm enjoying following your journey through the new story!
Actually, the story element of the trial series was spread across more than just Tataru's, there was some also in that side quest that went into the fiends' backstory, *and* there was more story in the patch MSQ than is typical.
Also consider that the other Post MSQs were split into two parts, the follow up to the main MSQ of that expansion and the setup for the next one, where Endwalkers was... actually neither? Not much to follow up on and seemed to set up some other distant story and only giving us a simple dawntrail intro. So they could have a singular quest line for one trial series in the Post MSQ. Makes sense to me. I really enjoyed the EW post-MSQ.
@@MrKnaives-e6h Ehhhh.... I mean 5.x had Bozja and Ishgardian Restoration that arguably was spread out between IS and Variant, so I think the equivalent is not the quests wedged between the dungeon and trial of each 6.x MSQ, while the final trial was shifted to Mandeville.
I don't think there's really a reason that the number of jobs has to influence the relic grind due to completionists. It would be fairly simple for SE to make a system that made the first jobs you do take a long time, but as you have more jobs completed, the speed you finish the grind at increases. It could be a level/buff thing similar to Bozja resistance levels / the buffs you get from that that just makes killing things quicker, or just a drop rate increase, or whatever. That way, the average player still gets a long relic grind, but the completionists don't have an unrealistic grind for the rest.
they did just that in bozja funnily enough. First time through there were 2 lengthy quests to get through (First was the 17 crystals from HW 24 and SHB 24 mans and second was the Two types of crystals, Gear parts and books) but once you did it on one character, they were non-repeatable. The other steps were and barring ONE step, the majority can be easily grinded out compared to those 2 steps.
technically the "long grind" was already done, through the Hildibrand questline. That's not exactly a short journey to go through and not everyone can even stand the type of humor it has.
@@RisqueBisquetz The hildi questline isn't a long grind at all, in the sense that this video was talking about a long grind being a reason to play each day. If you're not a new player who needs to do all the hildi quests from previous expacs, the EW hildi quests are around an hour or two each patch that has a new relic, and the tomes are something you don't even need to do new content for (like eureka/bozja), you'll just naturally accumulate them regardless. And to the bozja comment: That's a bit fair, though idr how much faster the one-time parts being removed made it, since I don't ever really do more than one relic an expac, typically.
@@italian504 I still stand by the fact that had Covid not hit....people would have bemoaned another 'Bozja/Eureka' in Endwalker. Both zones were lukewarm in reception to say they werent and beloved is kind of rewriting the past. People were pissed at the relic lock behind Eureka, and more were even angry that Yoshida removed the ability to progress the relic outside the Zone. Bozja...that it forced you to do a dungeon in a zone you didnt want to do. Its primarily that I honestly felt that the Endwalker relics was pretty much Yoshida apologizing to the people who didnt want to do that kind of content but had to fill the void of a content drought somehow.
@@grygaming5519You're assuming it's the same crowd complaining on both cases. There are people that still hate Eureka and Bozja but can't say shit because they know they'll get ragged on despite any valid criticisms they might have for the zones. Similarly if the seeming majority of people praised the Hildi relic progression, the OG relic grind people would look like masochists wasting people's time demanding more tedium to get the relic. Fact of the matter is, YoshiP was damned if he did and damned if he didn't change the relic grind. The only difference is we're used to the complainers about relic grinding from past expansions. We're not used to the other group bitching so it makes it look like a "new" problem. But those people were always there, ready to blow a gasket they just didn't say anything until now. Tl;dr people will always complain no matter what the fuck you do, just do your best to make sure the game is enjoyable enough the bitchers get drowned out (which is harder each day when social media is continually optimized to promote bullshit drama over literally anything else, it's legit the first thing people get shown on EVERY social media platform by default, wish they could be sued/punished to oblivion for such insidious influencing).
I think there are definitely things to criticize EW for that previous expansions handled better with story & systems, but I’m also very confident that 5-10 years from now, people who played EW will look back on it fondly for being an expansion that did a lot of boring busy work to update FFXIV into a “modern MMO” standard, and I believe a lot of the systems introduced here will pay off in the future as they are iterated upon. I think EW has been a great jumping-off point for Dawntrail to continue upping the ante for FFXIV - a fitting end to one story and the beginning of a new one.
Agreed. I get the feeling it'll get the heavensward treatment.. You never hear in modern discourse how terrible a lot of the content was in heavensward from diadem 1.0 and 2.0 IIRC as well as alexander nearly killing the raid scene..
considering how people treat heavensward now and are starting to talk about stormblood both of which were lambasted by the playerbase when it was current, endwalker is just getting the same treatment as every other expansion before it only reason no shadowbringers didn't get this was the mass influx of new players and the people that were dunking on it had to quickly change their tunes when the new players were being overwhelmingly positive about the current state of the game
I think some of the other issues with the 2 minute window (besides dictating raid planning) are: - It means all jobs have the same basic gameplan: stock resources/sync cooldowns to line up with 2 minutes. That makes jobs feel more similar and like there is less gameplay variety across the game as a whole. Paladin had to have a rework mid-expansion because it had a more sustained DPS playstyle that didn't play well into burst windows, so they changed it to be another sync-and-burst job like all the others, actively reducing job variety. - It HEAVILY punishes falling out of sync with your raid. The idea of the 2 minute window was so players don't have to worry about having bad synergy, but now since all jobs synergize by default, they are balanced around that synergy, meaning if you fail to sync your rotation with your raid (which can happen quite easily), you are losing HUGE damage. Particularly because jobs have also been designed so that all their biggest attacks also fall inside these buff windows.
I wasn't a fan of the last zone of the Endwalker MSQ. It had some very good moments but right after that section with Estinien, it became obvious how the story in that zone would unfold. It was obvious as well that none of the sacrifices actually mattered, so the story lost a lot of weight. Also felt like they didn't know what to do with Zenos so they jammed him in at the very end. There's so many great moments during EW's msq, even more than in Shadowbringer, but it was more inconsistent.
First can I just say: absolutely incredible editing, graphics, and production values. This video in and of itself is so well-made, and it deserves to be talked about on its own merit. The opening and end sequence tie-ins to the Endwalker trailers was stunning. The bit with the Mothercrystal was excellent, as well. S tier work, fellas. As for the topic at hand, I can only say that I have nothing to say because I 100% totally and unequivocally agree with ALL of your takes. You might as well have taken all of my thoughts, feelings, and overall opinions on the entire expansion straight out of my head. So I can't comment except to say that I agree with you all across the board. Not every piece of new content introduced was a smash hit, but I'm glad they took some risks and tried some new things, and I'm hopeful they will perfect these types of content in the future if they continue to listen to feedback, which they typically do. And while change is scary, so is the thought of having things go stale and become too predictable, so this shake up... trying all the new pieces of content. Things like criterion and such...I'm quite glad they did it in the end.
Eh, i absolutly loved endwalker and how it did things. But im also not one who looks for a forever game anymore. I get my fill and then move on, come back later when there is something new and go away again.
I would do the same but the problem is that the way they designed their housing system, you're either stuck paying your sub permanently to keep it or you lose it and on some servers, getting a medium or large back is just not feasible. And when you're forced to pay a monthly sub for something, you try to find something to get value for your money. The problem with EW is that there is no repeatable, worthwhile content outside of raiding.
@@Icycrits He? You have to resub like once every three months to keep your house you don't even need to think about it until you get the Email, which you get early enough to react. And as theother guy said, you can also just get an appartment. or a room in your FCs house. And frankly if you are playing with this cadence, the old content around is more than sufficient. Unless during those periods you play literally every day all day, you most certainly wont hae all the other relics and collectables
Such a good video! You really covered the points. There is plenty of room for improvement, but they did take risks, and that is commendable! There's room for the game to keep growing and I hope they can do so. I'm looking forward to Dawntrail and whatever it brings :)
Great video. You can tell there's a lot of effort put it, and it really pays off imo. 🎉 I think this arc was a near perfect gaming experience for me personally, and it's something I'll remember for the rest of my life. I never had the expectation that the patch content would meet that level of story telling, though I enjoyed it enough. I'm looking forward to how it comes into play later, for sure. I thoroughly enjoyed both raids and the variant dungeons, and I'm very much looking forward to how the latter progresses in DT. Island Sanctuary was a nice idea, and although mine is fully maxed out and self sustaining at this point, I don't feel like it hit the mark for me overall. I don't always agree with Mike, but I certainly agree with his EW sentiments overall. EW definitely stuck the landing.
"XIV is stale! We want change!" *CBU3 changes things* "Wait! Not like that!" My only real axe to grind this expansion was Criterion. I wanted it as a 4-man Savage option, but it was more for those who had completed Savage already, not for those who wanted to start playing Savage with a light party. I do still miss Exploratory content, though.
I gotta admit, i'm new to your content Preach, You just never really came up on my radar, but my GOD, this video was incredible. So detaled, so deep, and just yeah. I love the breakdown and I'll certainly share this with my FC and friends!
The thing with farming old relics is that it doesn't really become untenable because earlier relics become easier with each new expansion and even each patch. Getting a Zeta relic takes less than a day now on most jobs if you farm the right content, and the same goes for the Lux relics. Tying the relic to criterion/variant dungeons, island sanctuary, or even eureka orthos would've given players more of a reason to do the content in Endwalker that lacks a substantial reward.
I ran variant for glam and mount and I'm fine. I have no idea why is it that important to have a dungeon you need to do more than that, imagine having to run tam tara 500 times for some reward. Having a roulette at some point once there's a lot of variants would be nice though
@@simfilesymlink4593 Same. I ran Variant for glams and mount and am MORE than fine. I loved Variant. I thought the stories, the views, the fights were just incredible. I'm super casual and for me and the people who spent days in there taking screenshots it was a memorable experience. I appreciated the fact that even if they did this in response to people who may have wanted something else, they made it with the rest of us in mind as well.
in the mind of cbu3 though, things like variant dungeons or shb/ew fates or the island don't need an extra reward track attached to them because they already made systems that actively reward doing that content, unlike the old relics that funneled people into content that there wasn't any real reward for, like arr-sb fates, or relic stages that expect you to run roulettes released at the point where most players have hit cap on all their jobs And while people will gripe about criterion rewards, we all know there's zero chance of them locking casuals out of the relic by making them do savage level content
@@simfilesymlink4593 A lot of people didn't do any of that content specifically because it only unlocks glams and mounts. If they don't like those glams or mounts then its likely not content that they want to do. In turn, they deprive themselves of content they want to do, and end up feeling like endwalker is devoid of content, which is the situation that we're in right now.
@@fredy2041 A lot of people also loved the grind and were happy when they actually finished a relic step, myself included. But now its not much to celebrate because its just 1500 tomes each step.
I loved it as a whole. Made me cry and the way it ended was super satisfying. The only dip was def Zero’s story in post-MSQ which dragged a bit but I still enjoyed certain moments. We didn’t really get that vacation we wanted. Also, we got some of the best Hildy moments in EW. I was happy with it overall.
About relics specifically, i think it's fine if it's easier to get them, but the key thing is it should be fun to get them. Roulettes aren't that bad to do now and then, but when tomestones also can be used for other things... imagine if instead it was tied to some fun content set on the island archipelago or something. It doesn't have to be an advanced Bozja zone.
My theory has always been that post patch is the palette cleanser after that big conclusion. We're wrapping up loose ends using a separate story that I enjoyed as an old school FF series fan. Once the Zodiark arc ended I really just wanted to be able to hang out and have time to relax in the world I saved. I'm from the casual end of the spectrum and have been enjoying the game daily so content has never been a problem for me.
one of the biggest problems with the 2 minute meta is that if you even slightly drift your cooldowns, you're completely screwed. there's no smaller buff window to use them in instead. they unintentionally made the the raids harder
Endwalker was good (I wouldn't say 'great,' Shadowbringers is what great looks like) until the most recent 3 or 4 post-MSQ story patches. Then the writing fell off hard; and I hope it was just because they were trying to fill it out with what is basically an elongated intern-written trial series, while the real team worked on Dawntrail. It was the closest I ever came to wanting to skip dialogue just because of how poorly parts of it were written, the stupid decisions, the tell-don't-show they HEAVILY relied upon in the latest additions, and the literal coin-flip of Golbez from bad to good over the course of a 3 line conversation.
Regarding the relics and there being too many jobs to realistically expect people to grind out weapons for, I heard a good suggestion of making the FIRST weapon a real grind and any subsequent weapon much easier to obtain.
i would put forth that i didn't expect meteion to be the antagonist as soon as i saw her - her dialogue was reminiscent of hydaelyn quotes, so i thought somehow she'd end up being the mother crystal, personally
I'd like to add a point regarding the trial series. I don't believe it's not only because people weren't doing them. I think that because the Four Fiends and Golbez are so iconic within the FF community, that there was an expectation that they should have been trials and given their flair. Since they were tied to the MSQ, that's what they decided to go with. It's always important to remember that FFXIV also works on the basis of the expectations that it IS a Final Fantasy theme park before being an MMO
Not towards preach, thats why its call the climax of a story, its always going to have its up and downs. You can never appreciate the ups unless theres some downs in there. The intermission between each expansion is usually the down. For me it was fun seeing the new shard and seeing zero's character development. It doesn't always have to be deep or amazing, just fun enough that is enjoyable
6.0 and its culmination of the entire Hydaelyn arc is easily one of the best gaming experiences I ever have had. It wrapped up the story perfectly and was a fantastic end to my Characters Journey. I've had a lot of trouble progressing any further with the following patches and am still at 6.2 at this point as I feel like the Story as a whole was completed for me and anything beyond 6.0 feels unneeded in my mind.
The production for this was top tier Preach! You are my #1 favorite content creator because you genuinly give a crap about what you do and the information you put forth. A genuine gamer who loves the games he plays and loves his community! Keep up the awesome work! -Southwest part of the USA
I’ve enjoyed Endwalker but I’ve really missed not having a new exploration zone. Partially for how the relic has been this expansion but also the lack of new content like CLL DRN/S and Dalriada. I feel like they explored a bit more with the essences and lost actions that could switch up how your class plays in bojza. I appreciate how balanced the main game is but it’s fun to be able to cook up some load outs for different situations, tank as a dps or do crazy dps as a healer.
ew cater to casuals this tiem the 85 of the playerbae over the midcore that why the relics are causal freindly and we had causal content for the first time(eureka and bozja arent casual content they are pure midcore content)
My issue is value. The game, once you are caught up and playing it patch to patch, just does not offer enough of the content I enjoy for me to pay 15 a month for it.
I don’t think it’s fair to compare Tartaru’s grand endeavour to the story segment of previous expansions’ trial series. Previous expansions have also had an equivalent of the Tataru quests. Like Heavensward’s scholasticate quest.
My take on all this is, I'm just here for the adventure. The Zero MSQ is like a mini arc that delved into an old story thread since ARR. It's not meant to have huge stakes. If anything it's meant as a setup for something later down the line.
I think one thing a lot of people need to remember that the post MSQ was not there to build more hype for the ending, like how a lot of the others were, like postmsq in shadowbringer. Its there to start laying the groundwork for the upcoming 10year arc, so in all fairness you should compare it more to how ARR was used to setup the zodiark/hydaelyn arc. So the Endwalker post msq would never have been comparable to the Shadowbringer one, as the stakes and starting points are completely different.
I like the balanced approach, and I think it's true a lot of what you say- at least, I have nothing I want to contradict. I was perfectly satisfied by Endwalker, and while there was some disappointment, and I don't log it quite as much as I used to, I'm still looking forward to and trusting the process moving into Dawntrail. Whatever it ends up being, it's not going to be bad, and it's probably going to be great. Better than Shadowbringers? Possibly not, but it can very possibly lay the foundation for an expansion just as good or even better in a few years.
For me it was honestly just the relic grind. I don't do every weapon but i love the Eureka/Bozja style content and after a hard day at work to come home at relax in those zones while progressing towards something was great. EW didnt have that and I can't unwind after work while speeding through dungeons. The only thing thatblet me relax was doing the Ultimates with my friend's and cracking jokes with them while getting utterly destroyed by mechanics
Endwalkers story told you a very interesting idea to the question what is the meaning of life and it was the biggest oh shit moment in any expansion i have seen
I LOVE this level of editing. I am sure it takes a ton of work, but man - does it make watching the video so much more entertaining. Great analysis. Your comment about "untenable" for long grind weapons boils down to the premise: should it be reasonable that one person - can - do everything, or should people be constrained by choice imposed by time. I for one, think there is value in needing to make a choice, even if it gives completionists heartburn...
24 minute video of a well thought out introspective of a 10 year ark and all I can think of is when I'd go to work every day as a meteorologist. And spend hours checking each chart we'd draw and send out to the world for people drawing thunderstorm-dong areas all over them hoping no one notices.
Great video!! Variant and Criterion dungeons has been my favorite content they’ve added to the game! I love puzzles and I love doing blind content and it’s so much easier to get 4 people who want to do it blind and have fun with that than it is to get 8 people, who don’t just wanna watch guides and rush to the rewards as quickly as possible.
The expansion was great. It delivered to me in every way it mattered to me. But i'm a casual player. I get it may not have been the best for everyone, but for me it was amazing.
Personally, i thought the post MSQ was setting up the eventual restoration of both the 1st and 13th. Where we would channel aether between the realms to fix the imbalance. I think the restoration is set up now, so it could happen in the background to not feel like they were wrapped up overnight But thats just my Theory... I also felt it finally explored the 13th, which inhabitants have been antagonists since ARR.
I admit, I was afraid to watch this video because of the title. Frankly I have a lot of fatigue over content creators being down on Endwalker for what I felt were pithy reasons (not least of which is click/ragebaiting). But I'm glad I did. You offer a very coherent and thoughtful look at the whole thing that is far from being anywhere near as negative as I feared. Also that intro/outro was freaking baller. And the DPS burst window graph was hilarious. Well done!
I was prepared to white knight the hell out of Endwalker....but you destroyed that pretty quick. I guess it is the fact that there seems to be 1 or 2 that just want to trash something for the sake of trashing it, but you brought everything into perspective. Really could not argue with what you said and had me thinking "Yeah, he's right there...and there too". I really enjoyed all the bits and pieces of Endwalker (Stormblood will always be a fav of mine though). Guess what I am shooting for is: Really well put together and well thought out! Thanks
I wouldn't call the expansion a failure by any means. It was a good expansion. Speaking for myself, I enjoyed it. The problem is that the game got so much attention during Shadowbringers. The playerbase grew and grew because everyone was trying it out. Big streamers picked up the game and their viewers followed. Shadowbringers' numbers were inflated so much that everyone thought ff14 was the mmo titan that everyone was gonna switch to. But that's not how it works. Not everyone that tries the game is gonna continue playing it. The audience thinned out when the hype died down and now we're just back to the players who truly enjoy the game. Not to mention the fact that Endwalker actually had a conclusion to the original story. People that were invested in the game for the story got their closure, and now they don't feel that pull back to the game because now there's another story to follow that's just beginning. The audience will continue to rise and fall as the new story progresses. The latter half of Endwalker is just the "filler arc". I have a feeling dawntrail is gonna deliver on the new story, but we'll just have to wait and see. I think it'll all work out fine.
For me, since Dawntrail is the start of another 10 year journey, I mostly expect it to be like either Heavenward or Stormblood as the "setup" and "foundation" expansion with its own self contained story. And thus setting up something for the future expansions. The big thing for me was the transference of the type of aether across shards. So I'm waiting for the rebalance of aether across all shards and what stories and adventures we'll find there. The "bigger picture" essentially.
I’ve been around on and off since v1.0’s original beta test. It’s evolved so much since then and it’s become one of my favorite games and one of my favorite stories of all time in a game.
To quote FF9: "The road ahead remains wide open while your dreams are alive, only fear can block the way. Let fear propel your forward, do not look back, do not let failure stifle you." Imho Endwalker was a good send off for the main story arc, with the FF4 post-MSQ as a palate cleanser before we embark on the journey to new adventures. Personally I'm incredibly hyped for the FF11 raids they announced and I hope they live up to the hype... and they don't turn into another Ivalice set of raids. XD
I can't help but feel like the lack of "things" to do is a pretty niche problem. I spent the last couple moths grinding bozja relics. Before that, I had done the eureka grind, before that I did a bunch of the alliance raids. I started 6 months before the release of endwalker, and am still discovering content to do. After I finish the post msq, I am planning on doing blue mage content. I have been eating well the past three or so years.
@@cheesemuffin8129 I have played close to 2500 hours thus far. I'm sure there are people who play more, play faster, and have played longer. But considering how much time I've sunk into the game, and how much more I *still* haven't touched. It really does seem most complainers have content to do. They just don't want to do it. Which is fine, there is nothing wrong with that, but it's not the complaint they are claiming they have. For example. Zepla clearly burned out. Here time with ultimates did not agree with her and it kinda poisoned her experience with the expac. I don't buy her complaints that there is nothing to do.
As someone with no ffxiv raid experience what if they added a lust in there for people to time their cooldowns with like wow does or would that be turning the game too much into wow? I only tried doing a tiny bit of the easier raid content in the game and although I loved the story and everything else about the game I really hated the combat, but I realize that many people love it. I don't want them to try to appeal to someone like me and ruin it for everyone else to appeal to what I want. Personally the worst one for me is the knockback mechanics that require you to hit arms reach or surecast at the right time or you die. I also hate weaving ogcd that all the jobs have with abilities that do the same thing clogging up my action bars with 3 hit combos that never change and prefer the priority proc system wow has, but if they did that ffxiv wouldn't be what it is anymore to the people that actually love it.
My theory on the approach to the relic grind for Endwalker is that they needed to create a new Poetics outlet for the next couple years. At the moment, Anima weapons from Heavensward are one of the most straightforward ways to spend Poetics, but folks (myself included) are starting to hit the point of having all the Anima weapons complete and thus no reasonable thing on which to spend Poetics. I'm sure in the future I'll be very glad to have a way to burn through those.
"Boring." Honestly, farming Bozja relics is more boring than farming tomestones. Skirmishes are fucking boring, except maybe half a dozen of them that only show up once every now and then. The rest are on the level of FATEs. And the critical engagements are just worse alliance raids than all of them except maybe CT and (IMO, though most disagree with me) two of the three YoRHa raids (oooo, slow bullet time, oooooooo, so exciting /s). The thing with tomes is variety... more than you get from either Bozja or Eureka. You can even do PvP to farm tomes if you really want to. The people complaining are just under the illusion that tomes offer less, and that Bozja content was some sort of monumental addition, when the story wasn't all that large, skirmishes are moooostly glorified FATEs, and critical engagements are watered down alliance raids. The only thing that really felt missing was Delubrum, which is fantastic. But it's so hard to get a group for that organically even at peak hours on Aether. You have to LFG of Discord. The story element of Bozja was basically shifted to IS and variant dungeons. Are they as good as Bozja's story? Absolutely not, but I did like IS's and variant stories have potential with refinement in the future. I think the only valid complaint content-wise is that patches came slower and it's a very long time between 6.5 and 7.0. But I kinda get it with the focus adding duty support and on graphical overhauls that CBU3 has been working on.
Thank you!!!! this is what I have been shouting for so long this relic grind is really the same as its always been just not tied to a certain piece of content there was always tomes grinds to be had or dungeon grinds why do people get so hung up on the lack of hiding what it really is this time, I would rather farm whatever content I want then do 200 As1 runs for light or 160 Garuda ex's
@@lushdontu4015 When I tried to do Delubrum for the first time (DURING the tail end of Shadowbringers), I had to queue 5 times to get more than a couple people. Eventually I queued into a group of 4 and we decided to give it a go. One of our party members died just a couple mechanics into every fight, so it was really just 3 of us. If the remaining 3 of us weren't doing the mechanics well enough, it would not have been successful. I queued during peak hours on JENOVA, which is quite populated. When I started farming relics, it was common for like 12-15 people organically doing CLL and only after a lot of them showed up because I or someone told them it's up, after only a handful of us would be out farming the, again, FATEs. And, yeah, my opinion is somehow a "lie," but I'm not surprised you're throwing that out there about an OPINION given your shitty attitude towards other people in the comments, lol.
@@cyanmage1 quening for the same dungeons over and over again is worse and such a lazy design. They then made a horrible excuse to cover up their lazy coding
the daily grip to login part of the video is literally explained by yoshi p telling everyone the game is designed in mind with you to have to time to do other things. Its not meant to hook you into the eternal grind. You make up your own fun. And guess what, some people are doing exactly that. I log in everyday cause theres always something ive left unfinished that i want to finish. But i have my friends to hang out with. MY issue though and what i hope isnt the future. Is that they decide to generalize broadly how the game is designed to appeal to a "wider audience." Ruining the individual joy of the things in favour making it all.. well.. appeal to people who arent like me. And inevitably making me not want to take part in it. Because its become bland. I want something to sink my teeth into.. i dont care how much effort i have to put in. I loved grinding for every single relic weapon in arr. Soon to begin heavensward.
Great work on the editing! Been loving these ambitious videos that are able to make use of having a proper studio again, that moon shot is glorious and the side-content review must have taken forever. I still think that FFXVI is taking the brunt of blame when in reality I find it much more likely the graphic update is the culprit. CBU3 hired a TON of staff for XVI production and while obviously Yoshi-P would have had to split his time that isn't true of all the developers and systems managers that stayed with XIV. Updating an MMO is a huge undertaking, especially one with as much technical debt as XIV, and Covid likely made that timeline even more difficult to plan for; they probably thought it better to sacrifice patch content and have a stellar expansion release than to compromise on both.
The post-nut clarity could not be more stated enough. The grand long build up of the zodiark-hydaelyn arc and edging/gooning towards its conclusion finally realized, whether you are a type who finishes and enters into a food-comatose state or ready to go round number 2, the truth hurts of anything afterwards and is not going to feel the same especially as the story goes on cooldown for the next build up.
Sorry Preach but the comparison between endwalkers zero, golbez and the void, with HWs warriors of darkness is not apt here. Ardbert and company was very much an original creation for 14s world and not a direct fan service throwback to past FF titles. Likewise, despite it having an incredible payoff years later in ShB, it still deserved its criticism in HW because it was introduced and undercooked before it made its exit. Just because you have intention to use the story elements later, and do no wish to bring the audience in the future plans, doesnt mean you get a free pass with poorly introduced plot elements. Players feeling like HWs warriors of darkness stuff was filler was completely justified. But more than that, it is so painfully obvious that the whole Zero arc stuff is completely in line with the trial series stuff that has come before it in previous expansions, that have traditionally (with sorrow and warring triad) been more direct references to past ff games and written in a way that make sense in 14s universe but not deeply integral to the core storyline. The post launch MSQ of EW is without question a slightly juiced up "trial series" for all intents and purposes. There is nothing wrong with that ofc, but its silly to come to its defense as important for the core storyline that may have payoff years down the line. And if it does, I would say that would be incredibly disappointing because it suggests to me, the creative bankruptcy in the writting to where they need to rely on core classic ff staples like ff4 to support an original storyline.
Preach, Thank you for your dedication to content creation. Keep pushing and can't wait to watch your journey in DT. MY stance as a 10+ yr vet (phase 3 beta started fresh) Yes Endwallker lived up to expectations, did we get a massive ton of end game content, no it fell short. Island Sanctuary was able to be grinded out quickly with a slight bit of dedication. Varient dungeons were a small bit of side content, i really hope they take it further. Relic weapons as a grind were meh after bozjda. All in all Yoshi gave us plenty of time to play some of the other games we absolutely love while still giving us something to look forward to in Dawntrail.
The post msq for endwalker was okay but it felt like a filler sidequest that will hold little weight in dawntrail. I didn’t know it was a reference to ff4 and actually it makes a lot of sense because I felt like I was missing the point of these characters as someone who didn’t play ff4. My biggest issue at the moment with the story going into Dawntrail is I feel like it’s time for there to be a serious refresh of the foundation of characters. It’s time that most of the scions stepped aside. There’s simply too many characters and I don’t want them. I want to go on adventure alone and meet new characters similar to the days long ago before we met the scions as that’s the only way we can build towards a new story arc imo. The scions are done. They’re not interesting anymore. Of course they can bring back old characters but I don’t think they should be pivotal to the plot and have sparing appearances.
I don't really think they shifted trial bosses to the MSQ because not enough people did them as side content, it just happened to line up with their plans for the MSQ and I strongly suspect the trial series will go back to being sidequests in Dawntrail. What was the alternative? If Golbez and the fiends were pushed into a side story, what would the MSQ have been? If they came up with a different set of fights for a separate sidequest series, then we wouldn't get proper trials against the Fiends, Golbez or Zeromus. I don't think the devs mind putting big effort into side content they know a decent chunk of people won't do. That's why Ultimates exist at all.
For the life of me, I have no idea what all the issue is with Endwalker. For the most part, it was phenomenal. I never thought it could come close to Shadowbringers, and in many ways it surpassed it. I HATED Zenos, he should have stayed dead, but he did play a rather large part part in a spectacular quest in Garlemond, so I can forgive that. Didn't care for the Loporit stuff, but I know the expansion needed levity after some really dark story. I had ZERO issues with the post-Endwalker storyline. I play nearly everyday and am not bored. Every single Dungeon in Endwalker was spectactular; not one missed. I've been playing since Heavensward and feel the game is in the best shape its ever been... I find the criticism of Endwalker odd to say the least.
Regarding the relic grind: I think one time quests are the solution to the problem of too many jobs. Like in Bozja the first relic takes way way longer than the rest so we know cbu4 is capeable of pulling it off
I'm probably in the minority that loved the MSQ and post MSQ, as a huge fan of FFIV I generally loved every bit of it. The post MSQ finale trial Zeromus was far better than MSQ finale trial Endsinger and it's not due to combat, but even still the Zeromus is more interesting still. But the theme of Endsinger was just a mashup of Shinryu's phase 1 and phase 2 fight, while Zeromus's had it's own theme. Of course, the main MSQ story was obviously going to be better, if it wasn't that wouldn't go down well! But even so, post MSQ was awesome, it was like a bit of filler but a FFIV tribute too. I can understand it not wanting to open the next chapter completely, only in the final story patch where we got a brief taster of things to come. A part of me feels most just jump on the bandwagon and never really truly think for themselves or just afraid to be in the minority that actually loved it. If anything, I feel the beginning of Endwalker was a bit too dragged out I feel it could've been condensed a bit while still adding the important parts. Also that intro was awesome! edit: I'm strictly speaking of story stuff, as well as I guess mentioning trials, but anything like the relic and stuff I've not mentioned.
Man after seeing tha beautiful town ou live in it makes me miss West Germany 🇩🇪 even more. Ive never lived in a better place than Viernheim Europe is so amazing
As a casual whose been playing since 1.0, I thought Endwalker was just "fine" and was a good proper send-off (if long in the tooth overall), which made me want to take a nice long break from the game. I tried the post-MSQ stuff but it didn't grab me like the other post-MSQ content, which was the primary reason I stopped playing. It sucks that the hardcore daily players were left out to dry, though, and I'll be honest, if this next expansion doesn't grab me, that's it for me. I want my memories of 14 to be that of an amazing story with great music; not a carrot on a stick thinking that next time will be better.
ew was the first true casual focused expantion and the hardcore player didnt get left out it the midcore player who like non causal content like eureka and bozja but they too got new content it just wasnt grindy.
i respect how you put it perfectly how vetted players like me feel towards the direction of the game, everything feels like its fun for the first time until you realize its not fun anymore to constantly repeat the same content that was in the previous expansions and for a game that demands a monthly paid option its just disrespectful an a slap to the face that we've gotten such poor quality delivered rather than having the gem that we fell in love with get polished seeing it get scratched and scuffed up all over the place becoming barely recognizable as Gem and more like a soulless treadmill. an your guess is as good as mine like you said we dont know whats going on behind scenes but it really feels like morale is low or could use a boost maybe new faces are needed, fresh ideas needed to give them motivation again, or they just need to learn to have fun with what their doing instead of maintaining the status quo, but i am with you on the part that they SHOULD keep doing new things an never stop doing them even if they are at first recieved poorly because at least its giving them the feedback they desperately need on what could work an be improved on for future references an we can get content based upon what they learned from it and have a better experience overall.
S-tier Editing and content. Thank you Mike and the team. Thats awesome Honestly Story started going Downhill for me after Emet died. I didnt like how zodiark was handled.
Now that all of the patches are done and Dawntrail is on the horizon, we felt it was time to take a long look back at Endwalker as a whole - the good, the bad, the progress, the mistakes - and where it sits at the end of this 10 year journey which started in A Realm Reborn. As we look ahead, will Square Enix embrace change, or play it safe?
P.S. Yes that footstep scene was as much of a pain in the butt as you think it is.
Keep that footstep scene for your FFXIV openings!
Excellent job whoever on the PG team put that together.
Great video!
6.0 was great in my opinion. It had it's flaws and I didn't really like the ending. Personlly I think they wasted Zenos' potential. They could have done so much more with him after the final battle. I was really disappointed, but apart from that a really solid story.
The post patches however... yeah... not a fan. 😅
Nope. YoshiP was only the director of 14. He was only the producer of 16 BECAUSE he couldn’t take the same responsibilities.
BU3 could’ve shared resources, but also don’t know if they hired or expanded their respective efforts - it’s only speculation and not public. It is also highly possible that developing for 14 is relatively less difficult than back in 2.0.
The only fairness I would say is EW lacked any INNOVATION - though party follow and dialogue sections was new (but irrelevant here). The content cycle has been the same since 2.0, with a few sprinkles. We got a deep dungeon and criterion’s in lieu of Bozja-like content, it’s not hard to understand.
The game is getting a facelift, it would be nice to see more innovative mechanics and quests, but I don’t the content pattern will change much.
The relic grind complaint is boring and lacks effort as feedback. Is it immersive right now? No. But relics were always artificial FOMO, and always nerfed at the end of the expansion to the point that makes the grind a waste of time. No one like Fate grinds and suddenly we miss them? Aetheric light (dungeon/raid spam) is the same as tomes, change my mind. The real complaint is that instead creating a new log or relic “lore” they expanded and deepened the Manderville quests. People just need to call it what it is. FFS.
@@reyk1665I personally disagree. The fact they brought back Zenos after the end before was a little questionable gamble to say they least, but they did deliver. I think it was a fine send off
The intro is really high effort and appreciated.
So is the outro!
@@GimmeTOKYOlol the outro got me good, it made me laugh.
I was here to essentially type this haha. Loved it.
Agreed
I love when Preach gets all filmmaker.
When I saw that graph of 2 minute burst DPS, I... motherf... 🤣
So that's why they call it big deeps.
@@NibelungJ big dick damage.
He draws it all with such a straight face, too.
@@jackicurtis3611 he does not
I hate how impactful and funny the 2 minute cooldown is at the same time.
A fair and balanced take on the expansion. It was wonderful seeing you get to enjoy your time with Endwalker, and I'm looking forward to enjoying your Dawntrail coverage too!
I stopped playing after the 6.0 MSQ. I first started back in Heavensward and played pretty much nonstop for the best part of 6 years. Endwalker wrapped up the story so well that it just felt like a natural stopping point for me, a great place to hang up my bard bow and retire from saving the world. It was really fulfilling to walk away from a live service MMO with nothing but fond memories, not feeling burned out, not feeling like the game overstayed its welcome. Now I'm enjoying following your journey through the new story!
What an intro! What a review - production was off the scale . WELL DONE EVERYONE!
Actually, the story element of the trial series was spread across more than just Tataru's, there was some also in that side quest that went into the fiends' backstory, *and* there was more story in the patch MSQ than is typical.
except that the full storyline within the Ishgardian restorations dwarfs them both.
Also consider that the other Post MSQs were split into two parts, the follow up to the main MSQ of that expansion and the setup for the next one, where Endwalkers was... actually neither? Not much to follow up on and seemed to set up some other distant story and only giving us a simple dawntrail intro. So they could have a singular quest line for one trial series in the Post MSQ. Makes sense to me. I really enjoyed the EW post-MSQ.
it also went into Island sanctuary. every cap rank have some people visit your island. important npcs to boot.
@@MrKnaives-e6h Ehhhh.... I mean 5.x had Bozja and Ishgardian Restoration that arguably was spread out between IS and Variant, so I think the equivalent is not the quests wedged between the dungeon and trial of each 6.x MSQ, while the final trial was shifted to Mandeville.
@@MrKnaives-e6h subtract the not in my other reply
I don't think there's really a reason that the number of jobs has to influence the relic grind due to completionists. It would be fairly simple for SE to make a system that made the first jobs you do take a long time, but as you have more jobs completed, the speed you finish the grind at increases. It could be a level/buff thing similar to Bozja resistance levels / the buffs you get from that that just makes killing things quicker, or just a drop rate increase, or whatever. That way, the average player still gets a long relic grind, but the completionists don't have an unrealistic grind for the rest.
they did just that in bozja funnily enough. First time through there were 2 lengthy quests to get through (First was the 17 crystals from HW 24 and SHB 24 mans and second was the Two types of crystals, Gear parts and books) but once you did it on one character, they were non-repeatable. The other steps were and barring ONE step, the majority can be easily grinded out compared to those 2 steps.
technically the "long grind" was already done, through the Hildibrand questline. That's not exactly a short journey to go through and not everyone can even stand the type of humor it has.
@@RisqueBisquetz The hildi questline isn't a long grind at all, in the sense that this video was talking about a long grind being a reason to play each day. If you're not a new player who needs to do all the hildi quests from previous expacs, the EW hildi quests are around an hour or two each patch that has a new relic, and the tomes are something you don't even need to do new content for (like eureka/bozja), you'll just naturally accumulate them regardless.
And to the bozja comment: That's a bit fair, though idr how much faster the one-time parts being removed made it, since I don't ever really do more than one relic an expac, typically.
@@italian504 I still stand by the fact that had Covid not hit....people would have bemoaned another 'Bozja/Eureka' in Endwalker. Both zones were lukewarm in reception to say they werent and beloved is kind of rewriting the past. People were pissed at the relic lock behind Eureka, and more were even angry that Yoshida removed the ability to progress the relic outside the Zone. Bozja...that it forced you to do a dungeon in a zone you didnt want to do. Its primarily that I honestly felt that the Endwalker relics was pretty much Yoshida apologizing to the people who didnt want to do that kind of content but had to fill the void of a content drought somehow.
@@grygaming5519You're assuming it's the same crowd complaining on both cases. There are people that still hate Eureka and Bozja but can't say shit because they know they'll get ragged on despite any valid criticisms they might have for the zones. Similarly if the seeming majority of people praised the Hildi relic progression, the OG relic grind people would look like masochists wasting people's time demanding more tedium to get the relic.
Fact of the matter is, YoshiP was damned if he did and damned if he didn't change the relic grind. The only difference is we're used to the complainers about relic grinding from past expansions. We're not used to the other group bitching so it makes it look like a "new" problem. But those people were always there, ready to blow a gasket they just didn't say anything until now.
Tl;dr people will always complain no matter what the fuck you do, just do your best to make sure the game is enjoyable enough the bitchers get drowned out (which is harder each day when social media is continually optimized to promote bullshit drama over literally anything else, it's legit the first thing people get shown on EVERY social media platform by default, wish they could be sued/punished to oblivion for such insidious influencing).
12:50, you knew what you were doing
big dick damage, amirite?
Big ingame D checks
It's the only way to depict big dick damage.
Is this the famous big dick dps?
"and this one got shorter"
I think there are definitely things to criticize EW for that previous expansions handled better with story & systems, but I’m also very confident that 5-10 years from now, people who played EW will look back on it fondly for being an expansion that did a lot of boring busy work to update FFXIV into a “modern MMO” standard, and I believe a lot of the systems introduced here will pay off in the future as they are iterated upon. I think EW has been a great jumping-off point for Dawntrail to continue upping the ante for FFXIV - a fitting end to one story and the beginning of a new one.
Agreed. I get the feeling it'll get the heavensward treatment.. You never hear in modern discourse how terrible a lot of the content was in heavensward from diadem 1.0 and 2.0 IIRC as well as alexander nearly killing the raid scene..
considering how people treat heavensward now and are starting to talk about stormblood both of which were lambasted by the playerbase when it was current, endwalker is just getting the same treatment as every other expansion before it only reason no shadowbringers didn't get this was the mass influx of new players and the people that were dunking on it had to quickly change their tunes when the new players were being overwhelmingly positive about the current state of the game
This was well done. I hope the effort put in is reflected by the engagement. I'd love to see a behind the scenes view of your green screen setup.
I think some of the other issues with the 2 minute window (besides dictating raid planning) are:
- It means all jobs have the same basic gameplan: stock resources/sync cooldowns to line up with 2 minutes. That makes jobs feel more similar and like there is less gameplay variety across the game as a whole. Paladin had to have a rework mid-expansion because it had a more sustained DPS playstyle that didn't play well into burst windows, so they changed it to be another sync-and-burst job like all the others, actively reducing job variety.
- It HEAVILY punishes falling out of sync with your raid. The idea of the 2 minute window was so players don't have to worry about having bad synergy, but now since all jobs synergize by default, they are balanced around that synergy, meaning if you fail to sync your rotation with your raid (which can happen quite easily), you are losing HUGE damage. Particularly because jobs have also been designed so that all their biggest attacks also fall inside these buff windows.
I wasn't a fan of the last zone of the Endwalker MSQ. It had some very good moments but right after that section with Estinien, it became obvious how the story in that zone would unfold. It was obvious as well that none of the sacrifices actually mattered, so the story lost a lot of weight. Also felt like they didn't know what to do with Zenos so they jammed him in at the very end. There's so many great moments during EW's msq, even more than in Shadowbringer, but it was more inconsistent.
First can I just say: absolutely incredible editing, graphics, and production values. This video in and of itself is so well-made, and it deserves to be talked about on its own merit. The opening and end sequence tie-ins to the Endwalker trailers was stunning. The bit with the Mothercrystal was excellent, as well. S tier work, fellas.
As for the topic at hand, I can only say that I have nothing to say because I 100% totally and unequivocally agree with ALL of your takes. You might as well have taken all of my thoughts, feelings, and overall opinions on the entire expansion straight out of my head. So I can't comment except to say that I agree with you all across the board. Not every piece of new content introduced was a smash hit, but I'm glad they took some risks and tried some new things, and I'm hopeful they will perfect these types of content in the future if they continue to listen to feedback, which they typically do. And while change is scary, so is the thought of having things go stale and become too predictable, so this shake up... trying all the new pieces of content. Things like criterion and such...I'm quite glad they did it in the end.
Eh, i absolutly loved endwalker and how it did things.
But im also not one who looks for a forever game anymore. I get my fill and then move on, come back later when there is something new and go away again.
I would do the same but the problem is that the way they designed their housing system, you're either stuck paying your sub permanently to keep it or you lose it and on some servers, getting a medium or large back is just not feasible. And when you're forced to pay a monthly sub for something, you try to find something to get value for your money. The problem with EW is that there is no repeatable, worthwhile content outside of raiding.
@@Icycrits And this is why you're not supposed to have housing if you're a casual player. Apartments exist for this reason.
@@Icycrits He? You have to resub like once every three months to keep your house you don't even need to think about it until you get the Email, which you get early enough to react. And as theother guy said, you can also just get an appartment. or a room in your FCs house. And frankly if you are playing with this cadence, the old content around is more than sufficient. Unless during those periods you play literally every day all day, you most certainly wont hae all the other relics and collectables
Such a good video! You really covered the points. There is plenty of room for improvement, but they did take risks, and that is commendable! There's room for the game to keep growing and I hope they can do so. I'm looking forward to Dawntrail and whatever it brings :)
Great video. You can tell there's a lot of effort put it, and it really pays off imo. 🎉
I think this arc was a near perfect gaming experience for me personally, and it's something I'll remember for the rest of my life. I never had the expectation that the patch content would meet that level of story telling, though I enjoyed it enough. I'm looking forward to how it comes into play later, for sure. I thoroughly enjoyed both raids and the variant dungeons, and I'm very much looking forward to how the latter progresses in DT. Island Sanctuary was a nice idea, and although mine is fully maxed out and self sustaining at this point, I don't feel like it hit the mark for me overall. I don't always agree with Mike, but I certainly agree with his EW sentiments overall. EW definitely stuck the landing.
"XIV is stale! We want change!" *CBU3 changes things* "Wait! Not like that!"
My only real axe to grind this expansion was Criterion. I wanted it as a 4-man Savage option, but it was more for those who had completed Savage already, not for those who wanted to start playing Savage with a light party. I do still miss Exploratory content, though.
Criterion is the best thing that came out of Endwalker. It just needs better rewards.
"Nothing meaningful to do daily but the raids are there." My brothers know exactly which wow xpac this was.
I gotta admit, i'm new to your content Preach, You just never really came up on my radar, but my GOD, this video was incredible. So detaled, so deep, and just yeah. I love the breakdown and I'll certainly share this with my FC and friends!
The thing with farming old relics is that it doesn't really become untenable because earlier relics become easier with each new expansion and even each patch. Getting a Zeta relic takes less than a day now on most jobs if you farm the right content, and the same goes for the Lux relics. Tying the relic to criterion/variant dungeons, island sanctuary, or even eureka orthos would've given players more of a reason to do the content in Endwalker that lacks a substantial reward.
I ran variant for glam and mount and I'm fine. I have no idea why is it that important to have a dungeon you need to do more than that, imagine having to run tam tara 500 times for some reward. Having a roulette at some point once there's a lot of variants would be nice though
@@simfilesymlink4593 Same. I ran Variant for glams and mount and am MORE than fine. I loved Variant. I thought the stories, the views, the fights were just incredible. I'm super casual and for me and the people who spent days in there taking screenshots it was a memorable experience. I appreciated the fact that even if they did this in response to people who may have wanted something else, they made it with the rest of us in mind as well.
in the mind of cbu3 though, things like variant dungeons or shb/ew fates or the island don't need an extra reward track attached to them because they already made systems that actively reward doing that content, unlike the old relics that funneled people into content that there wasn't any real reward for, like arr-sb fates, or relic stages that expect you to run roulettes released at the point where most players have hit cap on all their jobs
And while people will gripe about criterion rewards, we all know there's zero chance of them locking casuals out of the relic by making them do savage level content
@@simfilesymlink4593 A lot of people didn't do any of that content specifically because it only unlocks glams and mounts. If they don't like those glams or mounts then its likely not content that they want to do. In turn, they deprive themselves of content they want to do, and end up feeling like endwalker is devoid of content, which is the situation that we're in right now.
@@fredy2041 A lot of people also loved the grind and were happy when they actually finished a relic step, myself included. But now its not much to celebrate because its just 1500 tomes each step.
I loved it as a whole. Made me cry and the way it ended was super satisfying. The only dip was def Zero’s story in post-MSQ which dragged a bit but I still enjoyed certain moments. We didn’t really get that vacation we wanted. Also, we got some of the best Hildy moments in EW. I was happy with it overall.
People forget covid messed with production all the time
About relics specifically, i think it's fine if it's easier to get them, but the key thing is it should be fun to get them. Roulettes aren't that bad to do now and then, but when tomestones also can be used for other things... imagine if instead it was tied to some fun content set on the island archipelago or something. It doesn't have to be an advanced Bozja zone.
My theory has always been that post patch is the palette cleanser after that big conclusion. We're wrapping up loose ends using a separate story that I enjoyed as an old school FF series fan. Once the Zodiark arc ended I really just wanted to be able to hang out and have time to relax in the world I saved. I'm from the casual end of the spectrum and have been enjoying the game daily so content has never been a problem for me.
Same feeling
one of the biggest problems with the 2 minute meta is that if you even slightly drift your cooldowns, you're completely screwed. there's no smaller buff window to use them in instead. they unintentionally made the the raids harder
Endwalker was good (I wouldn't say 'great,' Shadowbringers is what great looks like) until the most recent 3 or 4 post-MSQ story patches. Then the writing fell off hard; and I hope it was just because they were trying to fill it out with what is basically an elongated intern-written trial series, while the real team worked on Dawntrail. It was the closest I ever came to wanting to skip dialogue just because of how poorly parts of it were written, the stupid decisions, the tell-don't-show they HEAVILY relied upon in the latest additions, and the literal coin-flip of Golbez from bad to good over the course of a 3 line conversation.
For me it was the alliance raid. The final patch killed it for me with the writing.
Regarding the relics and there being too many jobs to realistically expect people to grind out weapons for, I heard a good suggestion of making the FIRST weapon a real grind and any subsequent weapon much easier to obtain.
i would put forth that i didn't expect meteion to be the antagonist as soon as i saw her - her dialogue was reminiscent of hydaelyn quotes, so i thought somehow she'd end up being the mother crystal, personally
I'd like to add a point regarding the trial series. I don't believe it's not only because people weren't doing them.
I think that because the Four Fiends and Golbez are so iconic within the FF community, that there was an expectation that they should have been trials and given their flair. Since they were tied to the MSQ, that's what they decided to go with.
It's always important to remember that FFXIV also works on the basis of the expectations that it IS a Final Fantasy theme park before being an MMO
Not towards preach, thats why its call the climax of a story, its always going to have its up and downs. You can never appreciate the ups unless theres some downs in there. The intermission between each expansion is usually the down. For me it was fun seeing the new shard and seeing zero's character development. It doesn't always have to be deep or amazing, just fun enough that is enjoyable
6.0 and its culmination of the entire Hydaelyn arc is easily one of the best gaming experiences I ever have had. It wrapped up the story perfectly and was a fantastic end to my Characters Journey. I've had a lot of trouble progressing any further with the following patches and am still at 6.2 at this point as I feel like the Story as a whole was completed for me and anything beyond 6.0 feels unneeded in my mind.
The production for this was top tier Preach! You are my #1 favorite content creator because you genuinly give a crap about what you do and the information you put forth. A genuine gamer who loves the games he plays and loves his community! Keep up the awesome work! -Southwest part of the USA
I’ve enjoyed Endwalker but I’ve really missed not having a new exploration zone. Partially for how the relic has been this expansion but also the lack of new content like CLL DRN/S and Dalriada. I feel like they explored a bit more with the essences and lost actions that could switch up how your class plays in bojza. I appreciate how balanced the main game is but it’s fun to be able to cook up some load outs for different situations, tank as a dps or do crazy dps as a healer.
ew cater to casuals this tiem the 85 of the playerbae over the midcore that why the relics are causal freindly and we had causal content for the first time(eureka and bozja arent casual content they are pure midcore content)
@@anteprs7908 Its you again. When will you ever shut up
@@anteprs7908 You are so horrible that I can still remember how ignorant you are even after a year
My issue is value. The game, once you are caught up and playing it patch to patch, just does not offer enough of the content I enjoy for me to pay 15 a month for it.
I don’t think it’s fair to compare Tartaru’s grand endeavour to the story segment of previous expansions’ trial series. Previous expansions have also had an equivalent of the Tataru quests. Like Heavensward’s scholasticate quest.
My take on all this is, I'm just here for the adventure. The Zero MSQ is like a mini arc that delved into an old story thread since ARR. It's not meant to have huge stakes. If anything it's meant as a setup for something later down the line.
I think one thing a lot of people need to remember that the post MSQ was not there to build more hype for the ending, like how a lot of the others were, like postmsq in shadowbringer.
Its there to start laying the groundwork for the upcoming 10year arc, so in all fairness you should compare it more to how ARR was used to setup the zodiark/hydaelyn arc.
So the Endwalker post msq would never have been comparable to the Shadowbringer one, as the stakes and starting points are completely different.
I like the balanced approach, and I think it's true a lot of what you say- at least, I have nothing I want to contradict. I was perfectly satisfied by Endwalker, and while there was some disappointment, and I don't log it quite as much as I used to, I'm still looking forward to and trusting the process moving into Dawntrail. Whatever it ends up being, it's not going to be bad, and it's probably going to be great. Better than Shadowbringers? Possibly not, but it can very possibly lay the foundation for an expansion just as good or even better in a few years.
For me it was honestly just the relic grind. I don't do every weapon but i love the Eureka/Bozja style content and after a hard day at work to come home at relax in those zones while progressing towards something was great. EW didnt have that and I can't unwind after work while speeding through dungeons. The only thing thatblet me relax was doing the Ultimates with my friend's and cracking jokes with them while getting utterly destroyed by mechanics
Endwalkers story told you a very interesting idea to the question what is the meaning of life and it was the biggest oh shit moment in any expansion i have seen
Sick intro. Man’s used a default text on the blender moon foot stamp text. Great vid❤
I LOVE this level of editing. I am sure it takes a ton of work, but man - does it make watching the video so much more entertaining. Great analysis. Your comment about "untenable" for long grind weapons boils down to the premise: should it be reasonable that one person - can - do everything, or should people be constrained by choice imposed by time. I for one, think there is value in needing to make a choice, even if it gives completionists heartburn...
24 minute video of a well thought out introspective of a 10 year ark and all I can think of is when I'd go to work every day as a meteorologist. And spend hours checking each chart we'd draw and send out to the world for people drawing thunderstorm-dong areas all over them hoping no one notices.
Great video!! Variant and Criterion dungeons has been my favorite content they’ve added to the game! I love puzzles and I love doing blind content and it’s so much easier to get 4 people who want to do it blind and have fun with that than it is to get 8 people, who don’t just wanna watch guides and rush to the rewards as quickly as possible.
The expansion was great. It delivered to me in every way it mattered to me. But i'm a casual player. I get it may not have been the best for everyone, but for me it was amazing.
Personally, i thought the post MSQ was setting up the eventual restoration of both the 1st and 13th. Where we would channel aether between the realms to fix the imbalance. I think the restoration is set up now, so it could happen in the background to not feel like they were wrapped up overnight
But thats just my Theory...
I also felt it finally explored the 13th, which inhabitants have been antagonists since ARR.
I admit, I was afraid to watch this video because of the title. Frankly I have a lot of fatigue over content creators being down on Endwalker for what I felt were pithy reasons (not least of which is click/ragebaiting). But I'm glad I did. You offer a very coherent and thoughtful look at the whole thing that is far from being anywhere near as negative as I feared.
Also that intro/outro was freaking baller. And the DPS burst window graph was hilarious. Well done!
I was prepared to white knight the hell out of Endwalker....but you destroyed that pretty quick. I guess it is the fact that there seems to be 1 or 2 that just want to trash something for the sake of trashing it, but you brought everything into perspective. Really could not argue with what you said and had me thinking "Yeah, he's right there...and there too". I really enjoyed all the bits and pieces of Endwalker (Stormblood will always be a fav of mine though). Guess what I am shooting for is: Really well put together and well thought out! Thanks
See you in Dawntrail. I have faith in them as well. They have shown that they actually listen to the playerbase by bringing back exploratory mission.
I wouldn't call the expansion a failure by any means. It was a good expansion. Speaking for myself, I enjoyed it. The problem is that the game got so much attention during Shadowbringers. The playerbase grew and grew because everyone was trying it out. Big streamers picked up the game and their viewers followed. Shadowbringers' numbers were inflated so much that everyone thought ff14 was the mmo titan that everyone was gonna switch to. But that's not how it works. Not everyone that tries the game is gonna continue playing it. The audience thinned out when the hype died down and now we're just back to the players who truly enjoy the game. Not to mention the fact that Endwalker actually had a conclusion to the original story. People that were invested in the game for the story got their closure, and now they don't feel that pull back to the game because now there's another story to follow that's just beginning. The audience will continue to rise and fall as the new story progresses. The latter half of Endwalker is just the "filler arc". I have a feeling dawntrail is gonna deliver on the new story, but we'll just have to wait and see. I think it'll all work out fine.
That was a really great video. It looks like a lot of hard work went into it. That made my day. 😊
Yep, Endwalker truly is better than Shadowbringers.
Thanks for reminding me how great the title song of the Endwalker is
For me, since Dawntrail is the start of another 10 year journey, I mostly expect it to be like either Heavenward or Stormblood as the "setup" and "foundation" expansion with its own self contained story. And thus setting up something for the future expansions. The big thing for me was the transference of the type of aether across shards. So I'm waiting for the rebalance of aether across all shards and what stories and adventures we'll find there. The "bigger picture" essentially.
wow that was a really great video, thank you PG
12:51 And that's why monk is shafted unless you learn how to use the optimal drift rotation, wich is a fucking nightmare
I’ve been around on and off since v1.0’s original beta test. It’s evolved so much since then and it’s become one of my favorite games and one of my favorite stories of all time in a game.
To quote FF9: "The road ahead remains wide open while your dreams are alive, only fear can block the way. Let fear propel your forward, do not look back, do not let failure stifle you." Imho Endwalker was a good send off for the main story arc, with the FF4 post-MSQ as a palate cleanser before we embark on the journey to new adventures. Personally I'm incredibly hyped for the FF11 raids they announced and I hope they live up to the hype... and they don't turn into another Ivalice set of raids. XD
What an amazing video! Great job!
A little late but amazing and great video and retrospective.
I can't help but feel like the lack of "things" to do is a pretty niche problem.
I spent the last couple moths grinding bozja relics. Before that, I had done the eureka grind, before that I did a bunch of the alliance raids.
I started 6 months before the release of endwalker, and am still discovering content to do.
After I finish the post msq, I am planning on doing blue mage content.
I have been eating well the past three or so years.
It is the problrm it the midcore players aka 10% of the playerbase crying that the game doesnt cater to thrm .
You started a couple years ago, no shit you have content to do 🤡
@@cheesemuffin8129 I have played close to 2500 hours thus far.
I'm sure there are people who play more, play faster, and have played longer. But considering how much time I've sunk into the game, and how much more I *still* haven't touched.
It really does seem most complainers have content to do.
They just don't want to do it.
Which is fine, there is nothing wrong with that, but it's not the complaint they are claiming they have.
For example. Zepla clearly burned out. Here time with ultimates did not agree with her and it kinda poisoned her experience with the expac. I don't buy her complaints that there is nothing to do.
As someone with no ffxiv raid experience what if they added a lust in there for people to time their cooldowns with like wow does or would that be turning the game too much into wow? I only tried doing a tiny bit of the easier raid content in the game and although I loved the story and everything else about the game I really hated the combat, but I realize that many people love it. I don't want them to try to appeal to someone like me and ruin it for everyone else to appeal to what I want. Personally the worst one for me is the knockback mechanics that require you to hit arms reach or surecast at the right time or you die. I also hate weaving ogcd that all the jobs have with abilities that do the same thing clogging up my action bars with 3 hit combos that never change and prefer the priority proc system wow has, but if they did that ffxiv wouldn't be what it is anymore to the people that actually love it.
Oh the editing is so good wtf DAT INTRO THO
My theory on the approach to the relic grind for Endwalker is that they needed to create a new Poetics outlet for the next couple years. At the moment, Anima weapons from Heavensward are one of the most straightforward ways to spend Poetics, but folks (myself included) are starting to hit the point of having all the Anima weapons complete and thus no reasonable thing on which to spend Poetics. I'm sure in the future I'll be very glad to have a way to burn through those.
"Boring." Honestly, farming Bozja relics is more boring than farming tomestones. Skirmishes are fucking boring, except maybe half a dozen of them that only show up once every now and then. The rest are on the level of FATEs. And the critical engagements are just worse alliance raids than all of them except maybe CT and (IMO, though most disagree with me) two of the three YoRHa raids (oooo, slow bullet time, oooooooo, so exciting /s).
The thing with tomes is variety... more than you get from either Bozja or Eureka. You can even do PvP to farm tomes if you really want to.
The people complaining are just under the illusion that tomes offer less, and that Bozja content was some sort of monumental addition, when the story wasn't all that large, skirmishes are moooostly glorified FATEs, and critical engagements are watered down alliance raids. The only thing that really felt missing was Delubrum, which is fantastic. But it's so hard to get a group for that organically even at peak hours on Aether. You have to LFG of Discord. The story element of Bozja was basically shifted to IS and variant dungeons. Are they as good as Bozja's story? Absolutely not, but I did like IS's and variant stories have potential with refinement in the future.
I think the only valid complaint content-wise is that patches came slower and it's a very long time between 6.5 and 7.0. But I kinda get it with the focus adding duty support and on graphical overhauls that CBU3 has been working on.
Thank you!!!! this is what I have been shouting for so long this relic grind is really the same as its always been just not tied to a certain piece of content there was always tomes grinds to be had or dungeon grinds why do people get so hung up on the lack of hiding what it really is this time, I would rather farm whatever content I want then do 200 As1 runs for light or 160 Garuda ex's
This is such a lie. I have literally met so many people in bozja which makes things more fun.
@@lushdontu4015 When I tried to do Delubrum for the first time (DURING the tail end of Shadowbringers), I had to queue 5 times to get more than a couple people. Eventually I queued into a group of 4 and we decided to give it a go. One of our party members died just a couple mechanics into every fight, so it was really just 3 of us. If the remaining 3 of us weren't doing the mechanics well enough, it would not have been successful. I queued during peak hours on JENOVA, which is quite populated.
When I started farming relics, it was common for like 12-15 people organically doing CLL and only after a lot of them showed up because I or someone told them it's up, after only a handful of us would be out farming the, again, FATEs. And, yeah, my opinion is somehow a "lie," but I'm not surprised you're throwing that out there about an OPINION given your shitty attitude towards other people in the comments, lol.
@@lushdontu4015 how is having a different experience then a lie
@@cyanmage1 quening for the same dungeons over and over again is worse and such a lazy design. They then made a horrible excuse to cover up their lazy coding
the daily grip to login part of the video is literally explained by yoshi p telling everyone the game is designed in mind with you to have to time to do other things. Its not meant to hook you into the eternal grind. You make up your own fun. And guess what, some people are doing exactly that. I log in everyday cause theres always something ive left unfinished that i want to finish. But i have my friends to hang out with. MY issue though and what i hope isnt the future. Is that they decide to generalize broadly how the game is designed to appeal to a "wider audience." Ruining the individual joy of the things in favour making it all.. well.. appeal to people who arent like me. And inevitably making me not want to take part in it. Because its become bland. I want something to sink my teeth into.. i dont care how much effort i have to put in. I loved grinding for every single relic weapon in arr. Soon to begin heavensward.
Oh, I really liked the previous title and thumbnail (felt more genuine!) but I understand given the algorithms 🙏
Oh for sure, we hate clickbait stuff as well. Just gonna see if it does anything for the algo and will switch it back if not
@@TheChunkeyNinja Playing the algorithm game like a robot is disingenuous and cringe.
Really great production. Thanks for this. You choosing this way really cemented you moving forward
Really great stuff. Thoughtful discussion on both sides. Thanks!
Great work on the editing! Been loving these ambitious videos that are able to make use of having a proper studio again, that moon shot is glorious and the side-content review must have taken forever.
I still think that FFXVI is taking the brunt of blame when in reality I find it much more likely the graphic update is the culprit. CBU3 hired a TON of staff for XVI production and while obviously Yoshi-P would have had to split his time that isn't true of all the developers and systems managers that stayed with XIV. Updating an MMO is a huge undertaking, especially one with as much technical debt as XIV, and Covid likely made that timeline even more difficult to plan for; they probably thought it better to sacrifice patch content and have a stellar expansion release than to compromise on both.
The post-nut clarity could not be more stated enough. The grand long build up of the zodiark-hydaelyn arc and edging/gooning towards its conclusion finally realized, whether you are a type who finishes and enters into a food-comatose state or ready to go round number 2, the truth hurts of anything afterwards and is not going to feel the same especially as the story goes on cooldown for the next build up.
13:05
Colonel, you better have a look at this radar.
What is it, son?
I don't know, sir, but it looks like a giant...
man that intro was fking PEAK
It's amazing how preach has a much more measured critique of this expansion than zepla 😂
I don't even play FF14 (personally fell off of MMOs really), but this video was so damn good I might have to try it. That intro especially was dope
Sorry Preach but the comparison between endwalkers zero, golbez and the void, with HWs warriors of darkness is not apt here. Ardbert and company was very much an original creation for 14s world and not a direct fan service throwback to past FF titles. Likewise, despite it having an incredible payoff years later in ShB, it still deserved its criticism in HW because it was introduced and undercooked before it made its exit. Just because you have intention to use the story elements later, and do no wish to bring the audience in the future plans, doesnt mean you get a free pass with poorly introduced plot elements. Players feeling like HWs warriors of darkness stuff was filler was completely justified.
But more than that, it is so painfully obvious that the whole Zero arc stuff is completely in line with the trial series stuff that has come before it in previous expansions, that have traditionally (with sorrow and warring triad) been more direct references to past ff games and written in a way that make sense in 14s universe but not deeply integral to the core storyline. The post launch MSQ of EW is without question a slightly juiced up "trial series" for all intents and purposes. There is nothing wrong with that ofc, but its silly to come to its defense as important for the core storyline that may have payoff years down the line. And if it does, I would say that would be incredibly disappointing because it suggests to me, the creative bankruptcy in the writting to where they need to rely on core classic ff staples like ff4 to support an original storyline.
I like your videos, but tend to actually click the like button at the end. Within the 1 minute intro I had to click that like button. :thumbsup:
Preach, Thank you for your dedication to content creation. Keep pushing and can't wait to watch your journey in DT. MY stance as a 10+ yr vet (phase 3 beta started fresh) Yes Endwallker lived up to expectations, did we get a massive ton of end game content, no it fell short. Island Sanctuary was able to be grinded out quickly with a slight bit of dedication. Varient dungeons were a small bit of side content, i really hope they take it further. Relic weapons as a grind were meh after bozjda. All in all Yoshi gave us plenty of time to play some of the other games we absolutely love while still giving us something to look forward to in Dawntrail.
The post msq for endwalker was okay but it felt like a filler sidequest that will hold little weight in dawntrail. I didn’t know it was a reference to ff4 and actually it makes a lot of sense because I felt like I was missing the point of these characters as someone who didn’t play ff4. My biggest issue at the moment with the story going into Dawntrail is I feel like it’s time for there to be a serious refresh of the foundation of characters. It’s time that most of the scions stepped aside. There’s simply too many characters and I don’t want them. I want to go on adventure alone and meet new characters similar to the days long ago before we met the scions as that’s the only way we can build towards a new story arc imo. The scions are done. They’re not interesting anymore. Of course they can bring back old characters but I don’t think they should be pivotal to the plot and have sparing appearances.
The grin Mike is hiding on his face while he draws the dps graph is just peak.
And the peak was exactly why.
The animations in this video are so good!
Love to see the production value now brotha
While I agree the Spreadsheet isn't what anyone was expecting, I actually love that it exists.
Brilliant review
Finally someone who seems to understand that Endealker doesn't have less content than any other expansion.
I don't really think they shifted trial bosses to the MSQ because not enough people did them as side content, it just happened to line up with their plans for the MSQ and I strongly suspect the trial series will go back to being sidequests in Dawntrail. What was the alternative? If Golbez and the fiends were pushed into a side story, what would the MSQ have been? If they came up with a different set of fights for a separate sidequest series, then we wouldn't get proper trials against the Fiends, Golbez or Zeromus.
I don't think the devs mind putting big effort into side content they know a decent chunk of people won't do. That's why Ultimates exist at all.
Holy fuck that intro goes hard
he forgot the arr trial quest line... yes, odin is a trial and you have a quest line for it. so technically it is the very first trial quest line. :p
For the life of me, I have no idea what all the issue is with Endwalker. For the most part, it was phenomenal. I never thought it could come close to Shadowbringers, and in many ways it surpassed it. I HATED Zenos, he should have stayed dead, but he did play a rather large part part in a spectacular quest in Garlemond, so I can forgive that. Didn't care for the Loporit stuff, but I know the expansion needed levity after some really dark story.
I had ZERO issues with the post-Endwalker storyline. I play nearly everyday and am not bored. Every single Dungeon in Endwalker was spectactular; not one missed. I've been playing since Heavensward and feel the game is in the best shape its ever been... I find the criticism of Endwalker odd to say the least.
If you dont know what other people's issues are, then you are clearly ignoring those people.
The intro is such an editing flex
Regarding the relic grind: I think one time quests are the solution to the problem of too many jobs. Like in Bozja the first relic takes way way longer than the rest so we know cbu4 is capeable of pulling it off
I also cried during the video when you ve been talking about the msq lol
Omg i love it. Way to go Preach! The whole team knocked it out of the Park.
I'm probably in the minority that loved the MSQ and post MSQ, as a huge fan of FFIV I generally loved every bit of it.
The post MSQ finale trial Zeromus was far better than MSQ finale trial Endsinger and it's not due to combat, but even still the Zeromus is more interesting still.
But the theme of Endsinger was just a mashup of Shinryu's phase 1 and phase 2 fight, while Zeromus's had it's own theme.
Of course, the main MSQ story was obviously going to be better, if it wasn't that wouldn't go down well! But even so, post MSQ was awesome, it was like a bit of filler but a FFIV tribute too.
I can understand it not wanting to open the next chapter completely, only in the final story patch where we got a brief taster of things to come.
A part of me feels most just jump on the bandwagon and never really truly think for themselves or just afraid to be in the minority that actually loved it.
If anything, I feel the beginning of Endwalker was a bit too dragged out I feel it could've been condensed a bit while still adding the important parts.
Also that intro was awesome!
edit: I'm strictly speaking of story stuff, as well as I guess mentioning trials, but anything like the relic and stuff I've not mentioned.
you are not in the minority dont let the youtube and twitter echo chamber make you think that
Man after seeing tha beautiful town ou live in it makes me miss West Germany 🇩🇪 even more. Ive never lived in a better place than Viernheim Europe is so amazing
As a casual whose been playing since 1.0, I thought Endwalker was just "fine" and was a good proper send-off (if long in the tooth overall), which made me want to take a nice long break from the game. I tried the post-MSQ stuff but it didn't grab me like the other post-MSQ content, which was the primary reason I stopped playing.
It sucks that the hardcore daily players were left out to dry, though, and I'll be honest, if this next expansion doesn't grab me, that's it for me. I want my memories of 14 to be that of an amazing story with great music; not a carrot on a stick thinking that next time will be better.
ew was the first true casual focused expantion and the hardcore player didnt get left out it the midcore player who like non causal content like eureka and bozja but they too got new content it just wasnt grindy.
i respect how you put it perfectly how vetted players like me feel towards the direction of the game, everything feels like its fun for the first time until you realize its not fun anymore to constantly repeat the same content that was in the previous expansions and for a game that demands a monthly paid option its just disrespectful an a slap to the face that we've gotten such poor quality delivered rather than having the gem that we fell in love with get polished seeing it get scratched and scuffed up all over the place becoming barely recognizable as Gem and more like a soulless treadmill.
an your guess is as good as mine like you said we dont know whats going on behind scenes but it really feels like morale is low or could use a boost maybe new faces are needed, fresh ideas needed to give them motivation again, or they just need to learn to have fun with what their doing instead of maintaining the status quo, but i am with you on the part that they SHOULD keep doing new things an never stop doing them even if they are at first recieved poorly because at least its giving them the feedback they desperately need on what could work an be improved on for future references an we can get content based upon what they learned from it and have a better experience overall.
What a video. Thank you for the content Mike and team see you in Dawntrail o7
the intro alone is killing it!
great work again by chris and the whole of the PG team
S-tier Editing and content. Thank you Mike and the team. Thats awesome
Honestly Story started going Downhill for me after Emet died. I didnt like how zodiark was handled.